Turkish steelmakers have kept their domestic scrap buying prices stable since last week, Kallanish observes.

Although mills have increased their imported scrap demand, their domestic scrap demand has not shown much difference since last week.

Turkish mills are paying higher prices for imported deep-sea scrap this week. US-origin HMS 1&2 80:20, which was sold at $253/tonne cfr last week, is selling at $258-259/t cfr Turkey this week. In the most recent bookings, a US-origin cargo comprising 15,000 tonnes of HMS 90:10 and 15,000t of shredded was sold at average $262.5/t cfr. Another US-origin cargo comprising HMS 80:20, shredded and P&S was sold at $258.5/t, $263.5/t and $268.5/t cfr respectively.

Meanwhile, European scrap suppliers are struggling to sell due to high offer prices arising from the strengthening euro. Baltic suppliers are offering HMS 80:20 at $263-265/t cfr Turkey.

Turkish mills' short-sea scrap demand is observed to be weaker compared to deep-sea. However, short-sea suppliers have also increased offer prices to Turkey.

A Turkish scrap yard told Kallanish on Wednesday: “I think they will initially complete deep-sea scrap purchases and come back to the domestic market for missing tonnages. This must be the reason for keeping domestic scrap prices unchanged while imported scrap prices increase.”

Current Turkish shipbreaking scrap prices stand at $250/t delivered by truck, up $8/t on-week. Auto bundle scrap prices in the Aegean region have also remained stable at TRY 1,660/t ($242/t).

Source: Company information